Self-Movement Screening using the Symmio Application is Reliable and Valid for Identifying Musculoskeletal Risk Factors.
Kyle Matsel, Jonathan Kirsch, Tessa Netelbeek and 3 others
PMID 37020451WHAT IT FOUND
Untrained people scored their own movement on a phone app almost as well as a physical therapist did.
The app identified pain with movement and balance deficits accurately, though it missed general movement dysfunction. Use it to spot issues, not to rule them out.
Key findings
01Self-scores from the app matched the physical therapist's scores on most movements, with agreement ranging from fair to near perfect.
02The app was 74% accurate at finding pain during movement and 69% accurate at finding dynamic balance deficits.
03The app failed to match the Functional Movement Screen when dysfunction was defined by asymmetries or the total score.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The participants were mostly college-aged and active, so the results may not apply to older adults or those with existing disabilities. A high number of participants already had risk factors, which can make accuracy statistics look better than they are in a general population. The app did not match the Functional Movement Screen for asymmetries or total scores, so it misses some types of dysfunction. There was a mismatch between pain reported before testing and pain experienced during the tests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the app is a complete replacement for a clinical movement screen. While it matched a therapist well on pain and balance, it failed to identify general movement dysfunction when defined by asymmetries or total scores.